The Wheels Turn?

There is a slight buzz in the air about a program that the Obama Administration likes and pushed for may actually be working.

Yes, it is the Cars 4 Clunkers program that seems to have Washington, D.C. and the liberal media all abuzz.

There are a few problems with this however. But first, lets look at a couple of the positives. Yes there are some positives. But don't get me wrong, the positives in no way make this program worth the cash being spent on it. Read "cash" as tax dollars of the American people.

It looks like a lot of older SUV and Mini-vans have been taken off the road. Yes those vehicles that environmentalist nut jobs hated have been scrapped in large numbers. It seems that people have bought smaller cars as replacements for the larger gas guzzlers.

That is good in two ways. It does reduce pollution (but don't read that as me capitulating to the enviro-leftist on global warming) and people will save a lot of money by getting better gas mileage on the American roadway.

However, if you notice the top 10 selling models, most of them are Japanese models where as most of the top 10 traded and scrapped models were American...Ford to be exact.

These smaller cars often mean less safe. Yes it is true, smaller cars are less safe than larger cars and SUV's and trucks.

The other issue is that this $1 billion boondoggle was actually thought to be of help to the government owned GM and Chrysler. It seems that Ford and Toyota and Honda are the big winners in this with about 7 of the top ten models being non US manufacturer vehicles.

Now sure, there is a nice bump in sales for the auto dealers and manufacturers while this program is in existence, and the Obama Administration is touting it on high. But what happens when the cash for this program runs out? Will Americans all of a sudden begin buying new cars in droves? What about those who bought the new cars? Will they be able to keep up with their car payments?

You see, whenever you have a government give away, it has to continue forever in order for the affects to last. Otherwise it is just an expensive blip or up-tick that is sure to drop back to earth once the program dies.

So watch out America, this may be another one of those temporary government programs that last forever.